The Problem With Some Blacks

Absolutely. In life there are no guarantees and while growing up in an established well to do family certainly makes things easier it is by no means a guarantee for success. Just like growing up in a not so well do to family is not a guarantee for failure. There are perks to both, the work ethic and responsibility come to mind when discussing poor vs well to do as you've stated. Having things "easy" for you in life can have it's negative consequences as you've demonstrated.

For me growing up with everyday being a struggle taught me the value of personal responsibility and the value of the dollar and those same values still hold true to this day for me. While most other kids in high school had cars and drove themselves to work I was the Senior who still caught the bus. I couldn't afford a car, their parents bought them theirs. I worked for years while in high school to finally purchase a car during the latter part of my Senior year but I loved it because it was mine even though it was a cheap piece of crap. When it broke down, which it did often, I had to learn how to fix things because I couldn't afford to take it to a mechanic. I learned engine repair, suspension, basic maintenance, etc all because if it broke I had no other choice but to learn how to fix it and I could barely afford parts let alone a shop to help me. Meanwhile I'm watching the well to do kids drag racing their Mustangs and doing donuts in the school parking lot tearing up their cars. Mommy bought them that car, it doesn't hold the same value to them that my little piece of crap car did to me. And once graduating high school and working and going to college full time I HAD to keep that car running because there was no school bus to take me to work or school anymore. There were plenty of days when I rode my bike to work while my car sat waiting for parts to arrive. I couldn't RELY on anybody else, I wanted it I had to DO IT myself. And even nowadays decades later when I could easily take my truck to the shop for repairs without batting an eye I still do most of my own maintenance myself.

I learned the value to the dollar and I keep those values to this day. I told myself every single day during college while working full time and schooling full time and not having a day off in over 2 years while living in a rat infested studio apartment with no hot water and bullet holes in the back wall...One day this will all be over, and I will NEVER live like this again no matter what. I drove by high rise condos every day on my way to work full of well to do kids my own age who's parents sent them there to party for spring break. One day....one day you will be like them.

I will never forget the day I was sitting on the patio at my job at a seafood restaurant eating lunch before my shift. It was a pizza I got from one of those cheap carry out places. A lady walks by on her way in and sees me and jokingly says "haha well THAT'S not good advertising mister!" I simply smiled and told her "I know ma'am, I just work here, I can't afford to actually eat here". She said "Oh my God I'm sorry...I didn't mean any offense I was just joking around". I simply smiled and said "No worries it's alright....one day".

One day finally came, many years later after dragging myself through broken glass for years looking up at everybody around me with envious eyes. I went back to my home town years later and I went to my restaurant and I sat down at a table for the first time in my life and I ordered the most expensive seafood platter they had. And then drove to my old crappy studio apartment and I just sat in the parking lot staring at my old home. And then I went to the store and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and checked myself into one of those high rise condos and I sat on the 25th floor balcony staring at the ocean drinking my whiskey for hours and honestly...I cried. One day was finally here.

I learned in my life, at least in my regards, that nobody is going to give you anything. If you want a car then you have to buy a car, nobody is going to give you one like your classmates parents did for them. If you want to go to college then pay for it, nobody is going to pay for it for you like your classmates parents did for them. If you want to go stay in one of those expensive high rise condos then you have to pay for it, nobody is going to send you on a paid vacation like those spring break kids parents did for them. And if you don't want to be poor and live in this rat infested tiny apartment with no hot water then bust your ass and get the hell out of here, nobody is going to pull you out from the kindness of their own heart.

I'm not an arrogant person, but I can say that I am proud of myself and everything in my home that I have holds special value to me because I know in my heart that I did all of this, and I know what it feels like to not have any of this. The 4K TV in my living room didn't just cost a few hundred bucks, it cost years of struggle and sacrifices in order to be able to casually toss a few hundred bucks to buy a TV.

 

Yup, difference is I got mine through years and sacrifice and misery while being a poor black guy in America busting his ass every single day to have it.

Folks are free to follow in my footsteps. The road is hard, I mean it's HARD, but it can be done. I am living proof of that.

Folks can make the choice to follow me or they can sit back in their own poverty and misery. The choice is theirs and theirs alone. And either way, none of the choices that THEY make effect ME in any capacity whatsoever. So you are correct, I honestly do not care at all what choices they make.

For years I tried to help, volunteered at one of the big brother places for kids without fathers, tried to mentor my young cousins and put them on the path to success, even tried to help my own sister for years. They ignored me, they shunned me, they call me names and criticize me. As Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech, I extended my hand and they clinched their fists.

So screw them, I'm not going to waste my time banging their heads against a wall. I extend my hand and you turn your back on me and call me names because I don't think the same way you do. So they can have fun in their misery and angst about the world.

"I got mine", you're right I did, and I extended my hand dozens of times to help others get theirs. They turned their back on me, so yes, screw them. And there is absolutely nothing any of them can do to hurt me or effect my life in any capacity whatsoever, so I don't care how they feel about me saying that.

 

I think you may be reading a bit too much into that than was intended on my part lol. I was simply referring to folks claiming that I need to Google some research on what its like to be a black person in America. I was saying I don't need to use Google to research what it's like to be a black person in America "I am one", as in I am a black person in America who knows what it's like to be a black person in America. And I'm fairly certain that due to that I probably know a bit more about what its like being black in America than a white person reading about what its like being black in America on the internet...